Saturday, 23 March 2013

NAJIB'S PROGRESS REPORTS ON ETP

LAST
Tuesday eveningPrime Minister Dato'
Seri Najib Tun Razak presented a progress report of the Economic Transformation
Programme (ETP) that is intended to set the nation on course to become a
developed, high income economy by 2020. The ETP is anchored on the Government
Transformation Programme (GTP) that has a number of enabling action plans
designed to propel the ETP.

According
to Najib's 'report card', most of the goals have been met.

"The
results can be seen in our standard of living and better quality of life; the
economy is prospering, while the government's financial situation continues to
flourish. We have come a long way but the journey is far from complete,"
he said.

In
this respect, Najib reported that the nation's progress can be seen in the per
capita GDP that has grown from US$257 in 1957 to US$9,970 last year. He said
that this is nearly 4,000 per cent increase in more than five decades.

"Based
on the Household Income Survey in 2012, the improvement of the people's quality
of life has rose from RM4,025 in 2009 to RM5,000 in 2012," he said.

Meanwhile,
he pointed out that the poverty rate continued to decline from over sixty
percent at the beginning of National independence to 1.7 percent in 2012.

The
brainchild of Najib, the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) was
implemented under the purview of the Performance Management and Delivery Unit
(Pemandu). There are seven National Key Result Areas Under the GTP. These areas
are totackle the people's cost of
living, reduce crimes, fight corruption, improve education quality, upgrade
rural development and improve urban public transport and the living standard of
low-income earners.

He
disclosed that under the NKRA, the government has taken several initiatives
that focus on the people's welfare and development.

Some
of the initiatives are 1Malaysia People's Aid (BR1M) to more that six million
people which cost the nation about RM2.34 billion, and a further RM524 million
for 5.24 million students.

The
government is concerned about the rising cost of living and has thus allocated
RM37.8 billion to finance various welfare related programmes, such as RM22.3
billion for various types of subsidies, RM873.5 million for incentives and
RM14.6 billion dollars for aid.

In
the area of raising the people's standard of living, a total of 106,967 people
were registered under the Azam Kerja, Azam Niaga, Azam Khidmat and Azam Tani
programmes and thousands of people have benefited from the micro financing
through Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia, TEKUN Nasional and Yayasan Usaha Maju.

He
said that the government has also launched the Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia to
provide affordable housing and Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia to ensure that the people
can buy essential goods at lower prices.

To
enable more children to go to preschools Najib also reportedthat the enrolment ofpreschoolers, reached 770,000 or 80 per cent
of the age group last year compared with 67 per cent in 2009.

Najib
said the Government has also increased the tempo of rural developmentby constructing 3,300km of roads, and
provided clean water to 1.4 million households and electricity to 470,000
homes.

"The
government has been building and repairing 53,000 houses for the poor in rural
area. This involves more than 266,000 households or nearly one million people.
Indeed, the whole initiative has improved the well-being of nearly 4 million
Malaysians living in rural areas," he said.

Najib
also disclosed that the tourism sector has also achieved great progress. He
said in 2011 and 2012, tourist arrivals numberedabout 50 million people bringing a gross
national income of RM100 billion. In the plantation sector, approximately
113,000 hectares of oil palm were planted.

Najib
said the private sector showed its growing confidence in the national
transformation initiatives and has exceeded its investment value by RM139.5
billion, driven by high capital expenditure in the manufacturing, services and
mining sectors. Private sector investment is important as it influences the
economic growth rate, he said.

Najib
said the global community recognised Malaysia's achievements, as indicated by
the accolades the country received, including being ranked the 12th most
business friendly nation, topping the list in terms of providing access to
credit facilities, according to the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Report
2013.

He
also noted that Malaysia was the 14th most competitive nation by the Institute
for Management Development's World Competitiveness Yearbook 2012 survey, while
the foreign direct investment confidence index survey by AT Kearney puts it on
the 10th spot.

Having
presented his glowing report on the ETP Najib called upon the nationto " build a brighter future for all, a
future that promises happiness for all." - Insight Sabah